Is this fifth grader’s outfit unfit for school?

Mother Kelly Quinn is upset that Sand Creek Middle School told her daughter McKenzie that her pair of tank tops failed to meet the school’s dress code. They made her cover up with a school t-shirt they provided. Quinn drove to the school with a new shirt for her daughter, who was to introduce her father at a school assembly paying tribute to veterans and active service members.

“I think it’s the parent’s responsibility to decide what their child is wearing,” Quinn said. “I think she was appropriately dressed. I don’t think she should suffer because other kids can’t dress appropriately.”

Quinn said she went to Colonie schools and wore tank tops in hot weather.

Sand Creek Middle School Principal David Perry said his school’s policy isn’t different from most others. Tank tops are ruled out for children of all ages.

“The rules are pretty constant in all school districts,” Perry said. “We’re looking for a certain decorum in schools. That might be appropriate for at home on the weekends.”

The district cannot allow tank tops for fifth graders but then rule them out for older children, he said.

“You can’t tell a child in eighth grade you can’t wear an item and let someone in fifth grade wear the same item,” he said.

The school reminds parents of the dress code at the start of the year and when warm weather returns, he said, and students are told the rules in assemblies.

When the warm weather first arrives, he said, four to six children are usually told to change clothes out of a school of some 1,000 students.